The youth training systems of Europe's five major leagues placed great importance on psychological counseling for young players.
In the late 1990s, Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger submitted a proposal titled Focus on Players' Psychological Development to The Football Association, hoping that every club would appoint full-time psychological consultants.
He believed:
Sixty-seven percent of youth academy players quit professional football before the age of twenty-one and needed psychological support to help them adapt to reality;
The Premier League was brutally competitive. Players faced immense external pressure when first stepping onto the pitch and had to undergo psychological counseling after matches.
However, as time went on and this process became routine, it gradually started to change in nature. According to related reports, some young players believed they were mentally healthy, yet psychological counselors insisted they were not.
It was the twenty-first century. By club psychological counselors' standards, everyone was somewhat mentally unhealthy...
Li Luo had no chance to experience the nightlife with Rooney.
At that moment, he was sitting in a spacious, well-ventilated room, receiving counseling from Manchester United's psychologist.
Upon learning that tomorrow was a day off, he was no longer lost or nervous. Instead, he began considering what he should do next.
Nervousness and uncertainty were useless. Time was no longer so pressing that every second counted; he needed to calm down and solve his problems.
"Li?"
"Were you listening to me just now?"
"Haha, it's fine. You must have been carefully reviewing the match in your head. Let's talk about something lighter instead. From the footage filmed by the club, I noticed that two Swansea City players intimidated you during the match."
"But you smiled in response to them..."
"You have a psychological disorder."
The psychologist gave a brief introduction. Ham was thirty-two. He had joined the French Army when he was young, retired after an injury, and became Southampton's team doctor. He had only just moved to Manchester United in the past two days.
His expression was grave, but his tone was gentle. "Open your heart."
Li Luo: "???"
What the hell?
He was saying I was sick?
Was he using me to hit some performance target?
"Ham, I'm perfectly normal."
"No, you aren't. A normal child would get angry or feel afraid when threatened, but you didn't."
"I looked through your previous records. You never cared about opponents' trash talk on the pitch before, either. This psychological issue has probably been going on for years."
"..."
The counseling session did not last long.
Li Luo absolutely did not believe he had any psychological issues. He casually humored Ham for a few lines, then hurried away.
A moment later, a young player named Lingard walked into the room with a mischievous grin.
His carefree smile was quite likable.
Ham repeated the exact same routine. "You smiled in response to your opponent's provocation. You have a psychological disorder. You aren't normal..."
Lingard stared blankly with his mouth wide open, then stood up, danced a little, and ran off with a grin.
The club bus driver was extremely enthusiastic. Calling him "hero" over and over, he smilingly drove Li Luo back to the Manchester United first-team dormitory.
The logistics staff told him they had already moved his luggage today, transferring it from the youth team dormitory to the first-team dormitory.
The dormitory area was very quiet.
Two Collies suddenly charged out. The chains restraining them stretched taut, but they only barked a few times. After seemingly seeing the Manchester United crest on the bus, they immediately quieted down and slowly crawled back into the kennels on either side of the gate, their chains scraping gently and crisply against the ground.
The security guard at the first-team gatehouse was a chubby old man. It was his first time meeting the Chinese boy face-to-face, and he waved excitedly.
"Li, you were incredible at the Theatre of Dreams tonight. I have to ask for your autograph in advance!"
The night breeze relaxed Li Luo considerably.
"Really? Bring me a pen. I'll sign it for you now."
"Haha, then you can't let Mr. Van Gaal know. He has new rules..."
"It's fine. If you make me sign too many times, I won't have the time!"
He quickly signed his Chinese name, then arrived at his dorm room under the logistics staff's guidance.
After closing the door, the first thing he did was turn on the computer and write his personal post-match summary for the coaching staff.
There were no requirements regarding its content or length.
He had heard that Lingard and Pogba had either handed in blank pages or drawn crooked little animals for Manchester United's former manager.
Li Luo was different. He had to write a serious summary, like a newbie player studying how a game worked.
Following the sample format Giggs had given him, he began typing.
"First, physical duels? This body can withstand the static collisions from Swansea City's midfielders and defenders most of the time. Opponents can't knock me down in one hit. Even after I completed the header at the end, Swansea City's tall defender charged in from a short distance and still couldn't knock me down at once. I merely staggered out of bounds, and once I raised my hand to grab the goalpost, I could stabilize my balance."
"No, I need to change 'this body' to 'my body' in the email!"
"Second, space? Third, passing and receiving? Fourth, positional defense? Giggs said I only played for a few minutes, so I can leave these blank. Wow, there are so many sections I can leave blank."
Li Luo breathed a sigh of relief.
"Fifteenth: Match feelings? I'll just write that I was a little nervous, but happy in the end."
As for how his body had felt, he did not write all of it down.
Once he had adjusted his breathing rhythm and stopped feeling nervous on the pitch, this body's athletic ability had been truly explosive. Setting aside everything related to touching the ball, Li Luo had briefly felt as though he were controlling a high-level game account and mowing down enemies.
As for the effects of the Spatial Awareness module, he was not foolish enough to write about that in the email.
With this module, at least he would no longer run around blindly on the pitch.
He prepared to sort through his luggage.
The moment he opened his suitcase, a crumpled little notebook fell out.
He opened it and took a look.
It was a diary!
The original owner's diary. It was filled with crooked English letters, like a child's handwriting.
He casually opened it somewhere in the middle.
"April 29, 2006. Ronaldo came over today to demonstrate dribbling. He said he was the strongest. I said I was the strongest."
"April 30, 2006. I am the strongest."
"May 1, 2006. I am the strongest."
"May 2, 2006. Number 7 is Manchester United's strongest number. I will wear it someday."
"May 3, 2006. Lionel Messi is very good on television, but I am the strongest."
"..."
He had been this confident since childhood?
He had been nine in 2006. He probably just liked writing the phrase "I am the strongest."
Li Luo smiled, closed the diary, and carefully placed it at the very bottom of the suitcase.
He had no time to think about such things.
Once things quieted down, he felt a little anxious again.
Tomorrow was a day off. What about training the day after tomorrow? There was a good chance he would be exposed.
Since the night was still young, he had to hurry up and study!
Much later.
He had finished the first episodes of instructional content from Morata, Lukaku, Giroud, Çalhanoğlu, and others.
He felt thoroughly fulfilled! His inner world and football knowledge had been enriched!
No, that wasn't right. Any one of the Manchester United Crown Prince's four essentials—passing, controlling, dribbling, and shooting—would expose him right now. He could not master them in such a short time.
After today's debut, Li Luo realized that the localized application of individual technique was not all there was to a football match.
He had to find a way to learn formations and tactics.
Much later.
He finally found some easy-to-understand football material, and it was even in Chinese: The 90 Minutes You See, by Cai Huiqiang.
Perhaps because he possessed Spatial Awareness, Li Luo found the content of the book very intuitive, especially the changes in formation structure. He began reading with great interest.
He did not know how long he had read before drowsiness and fatigue quietly crept over him.
Lying on the bed, Li Luo still thought hazily: There wasn't enough time to digest so much. Training the day after tomorrow would be troublesome...
The system still had not provided a way to obtain attribute points or skill modules.
If this were a game.
Newbie player Li Luo would definitely complain about the developers.
Before you continue